A golf club bag conventionally has a pair of parallel dividers extending across its open end or mouth providing three separate compartments. The dividers are usually supported by a strap or belt which traverses back and forth across the mouth between two pairs of diametrically opposed openings located adjacent the top edge of the bag. The ends of the strap or belt have a plurality of apertures and a buckle, respectively, so that they may be joined together.
Wood clubs are generally placed in one compartment with the two remaining compartments being used to hold iron clubs, a putter and other accessories. A particular disadvantage to this system is that the shafts of the clubs are free to rub against one another thereby scratching or scuffing the shafts. Graphite shafts are particularly susceptible to this damage. Further, this loose arrangement leaves the clubs disorganized and unsightly, making the locating of a specific club more difficult.
One solution to this problem is to provide retainers which releasably clamp about and position the shafts of clubs so that they cannot scrape against one another. These retainers may either be secured directly to the golf bag or else be affixed to an insert which is secured in the mouth of the golf bag. A number of patents illustrate the securement of retainers relative to a golf bag.
Remfrey, U.S. Pat. No. 1,833,534 and Purdie, Great Britain Pat. No. 280,427, disclose golf bags having a number of resilient clips or brackets, each adapted to clampingly retain the shaft of a club. The clips are secured directly within the mouth of the bag by screws or rivets.
Black, U.S. Pat. No. 3,503,518, discloses a golf club holder for a bag. The holder has a vertical curved wall having around its upper edge a series of raised outwardly exposed grooves for receiving the blades of iron clubs. A plurality of spaced notches are located around the inner periphery of the holder to secure shafts of clubs. The holder, in turn, is secured to the golf bag by rivets. A divider separates the holder from a compartment which is shown to store wood clubs.
Sidor et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,547, discloses a golf club holder. The holder is comprised of tubes having disc like tube sheets at either end and a rack which has clips which are glued, riveted or otherwise secured thereto. The plurality of tubes and pair of tube sheets are placed within the bag and retained vertically therewithin with a strap extending across the mouth of the bag. The rack has a pair of open slots which slide over and rest upon a pair of dividers supported by the strap. To ensure the rack does not come loose when clubs are withdrawn, the rack is permanently secured to the open end of the bag with glue or screws.
Ret, U.S. Pat. No. 4,181,167, discloses a club organizer for a golf bag. The club organizer consists of a round base, fourteen space tubes for receiving club shafts, and a club holder which is secured to the top of the tubes and has along its inner periphery a series of resilient notches for securing golf clubs. The organizer may be used alone or placed within a bag. The reference fails specify if or how the organizer is to be affixed to the bag.
Boyce, U.S. Pat. No. 1,756,901, discloses a golf club carrier. The carrier comprises an arcuate metal strip mounted to the top edge of a golf bag by metal clips. The carrier further has an arcuate racklike member having circular openings for reception of club shafts. U-shaped bracket members secure the racklike member to the metal strip.
Other patents illustrating retainers which generally retain and organize the shafts of golf clubs include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,915,221, 2,551,780, 2,520,226, 2,508,264 and Great Britain Pat. No. 347,581.
The above club holders generally suffer from the disadvantage that they are permanently installed within golf bag. Typically, rivet or glue means is used to secure the club holders within mouths of the golf bags. The club holders which are not permanently affixed to their respective golf bags, either fail to rigidly retain the club holder within the bag or else may wear upon the bag, such as by the metal clips in Boyce or else the sliding of the organizer within a bag as taught by Ret.
The present invention seeks to solve the problems inherent in the above-identified patents.